Cat sipped carefully at her morning cup of coffee. Her husband had made it too hot, yet again, but she had gotten used to that. She filed through the morning papers they subscribed to: The Los Angeles Chronicle, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Daily Planet. Pretty soon, Cat was going to start getting the online subscriptions. The only thing all these papers were good for was the puppy, Oscar, to train on. Or for her son, Dylan, who had just turned four and was coloring all over everything.

Cat decided to look through the Daily Planet first. Even after all these years, and all her articles for the Chronicle, the Daily Planet still held a special place in her heart.

There was a byline on the front page by James Olsen and someone called Tessa Stacks, that was interesting. Good to see that Jimmy had finally evolved from copy boy. Well, Cat mused, it had been several years. There wasn’t much in the way of interesting news through the rest of the paper, though. Metropolis seemed pretty quiet, this week. Not even any Lane and Kent exclusives. She realized she hadn’t seen any of those in a while.

She stopped when a picture of Lois and Clark caught her eye. Then she grinned.

“Honey! Honey, come here.”

She waited impatiently while she waited for her husband to come out of the bathroom. He came out holding Dylan, who was recently bathed and squirming to be let down.

“What?”

“Come here, look at this.”

He set Dylan down, who tore across the kitchen to the living room where his toys were, and came to look over her shoulder. He smiled. “I’ll be damned,” he said softly.

“‘The Daily Planet is happy to announce the arrival of its newest member, Lara Isabella Kent, born on June 7th, 1999, weighing seven pounds, six ounces. Lara joins her mommy and daddy, Clark Kent and Lois Lane Kent, and her adopted brother C.J., two years old.’” Cat put down the paper. “I didn’t know they already adopted a kid.”

“I didn’t either. Well, neither of us has spoken to them in years, and if he’s two…” her husband smiled. “Well, we were plenty busy around that time.”

“You were busy…chasing me. I can see how you were distracted.”

“Sure, act the hard bitten newswoman. You know you wanted me.”

“I know I still do,” she smirked.

He stared down at the picture of the happy couple, Lois holding a tiny baby in her arms and Clark carrying a grinning toddler…who looked oddly like him, for an adopted son. Kind of like Lois, too. He wondered what the story was behind that. “Well, I’m happy for them,” he said. “If they’re half as happy as we are, then they’re lucky.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Knowing her luck, they’re just as happy as we are. Did I ever tell you, I was once so jealous that Lois had three sexy men after her, that I decided Clark Kent and Superman were the same person and were screwing with her head, and Lex Luthor was a diabolical psychopath.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Well…you were right about that.”

“True.”

He laughed. “Clark Kent as Superman? Yeah, right. What I could see of him, he was a bumbling idiot half the time.”

Cat pouted. “That’s just because you were jealous.”

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. “Well, Mrs. Scardino, unless he’s looking at you, I have nothing to be jealous of anymore.”

She grinned. “Those, Mr. Scardino, are the magic words.”

---

Dear Lois and Clark,

We wanted to offer our congratulations, as we saw your daughter’s birth announcement in the Planet. We were unaware you already had a son, otherwise congratulations would have come sooner. We offer you our best wishes and our blessings on your children, and any more who might come along.

If you don’t know already, Dan and I met when he moved out to L.A., and we ended up working on an investigation together. He already knew that I had worked once at the Daily Planet, but it was some time before he mentioned that he knew you both. Don’t worry, Lois, I made him forget all about you. We were married about a year ago, and Dan has since adopted my son, Dylan, who is four. Both my boys have helped me to tame my wild ways. We’re looking forward to our daughter’s birth in six months.

I want to thank you for your rejection of each of us. If not for that, who knows what may have happened? My boys are my life now, and we’re all happier than we ever thought we could be. I suppose, in some way, we have you to thank for that. You were the first female I could even tentatively call a friend, Lois, and you paved the way for the women in my life who I do now call true friends. You also showed me that a woman could be more than a gossip columnist. I’m going to surpass you in Kerth Awards one day: I already have three. And Clark, you showed me that a man can be a gentleman. True, Dan isn’t as much of a boy scout as you (and I say that with fondness) but he is a kind man, and because I knew men had it in them to be kind after knowing you, I was able to open myself up to him. It was the best thing I ever did.

Dan says you both taught him about love…that even with the fights you had when he knew you and the problems you were having, you were able to get past it and end up where you belonged…with each other. He also says you taught him that he had to tame his ego a bit. Thank you for that. Our egos have a hard enough time competing as it is.

We wish you luck. If you’re ever in L.A., look us up.

Best Wishes,

The Scardino Family

Dan, Cat, Dylan and Baby (and Oscar, the dog)

---

The chapter names are taken from Ulysses, by Alfred Tennyson. The whole quote is “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” To Strive: Cat pushing forward with her life and her career, despite the set back of a child and no father around to help her. To Seek: Dan searching for that one love to make him complete, latching on to Lois in an attempt to find it, losing her and still continuing to look. To Find…and Not to Yield: They found each other…and they did not yield against love, they embraced it. Maybe not the way Tennyson intended that line to be interpreted, but I never actually read Ulysses although I always meant to, so, oh well.

So, it may be cheesy, it may be improbable, but I thought it was sweet. So what did you think?